What (free-)ware for older type routing CNC Masterwood

[thor2002]

Hi,

we just bought an older Masterwood project 319 (1994...) and are restoring the machine. It has a lot of features we found very interesting, like different row-borings, cutters etc.
Problem is, with this machine came an old version of Bobcad. This is used to produce g-code (old style?) like this:
G0 X0.00 Y0.00 Z0.00
G72 X50.00 Y50.00 Z10.00

etc..

At the moment we have to copy this code in windows, open an old floppy and edit an existing file with some additional lines that state the used materials, tools etc.

Thus far we had a number of small problems like the machine not starting (one of the arms wasn't exactly level...) and some errors due to dumb programming errors (resulting in exeeding max axis speed).

Our biggest problem is though, we have an old version of Bobcad (not longer supported) and shifting the licence will set us back 75 bucks. The suggestion by Bobcad was : buy the new product'. Sure, we just spent a lot of money on this machine, we don' t have that much extra money to just buy a new license...

So my question is, what (not to expensive / free) software could we use to procuce simple, straight foreward routing G-code for an old-timer CNC mill? It must be able to import DXF files, since most of our customers can export their drawings to dxf.

Thanks in advance!

Thor2002

[CNCRim]

Don't over look the small thing, as long as you have customer why worry about you can't get the money back on a CAM system. But you can try Cambam.

[harley4ever]

Try dolphin cad cam. They offer hobby discounts which help out quite a bit.